The present invention is related to the testing of communication devices, and more particularly to a system and method for testing communications servers capable of establishing a plurality of simultaneous modem connections.
The Internet has created additional demand for communication services. At first, Internet service providers met this demand by installing banks of modems. This approach was inefficient, unreliable and costly. With the advent of telecommunications standards such as V.90, it has been possible to build dense communications servers which consolidate functions in fewer boxes, make more efficient use of pooled devices and allocate ports to different applications dynamically as they are needed.
Remote Access Server (RAS) concentrators have been developed by companies like Digi International of Minnetonka, Minn. to receive incoming connections from, for example, branch offices and telecommuters. These products aggregate or concentrate up to 30 simultaneous analog (K56flex or V.90) or digital (ISDN) connections onto one T1, E1 or ISDN Primary Rate Interface (PRI) line. One of Digi""s single PCI slot products, the DataFire RAS 60, can handle as many as 60 simultaneous high-density modem channels or ISDN B channel connections over two T1/E1/PRI lines.
Testing collections of concentrators can be difficult. For instance, a large Internet Service providers may be configured to handle ten thousand simultaneous analog or digital connections. Testing of such systems under load requires that one make ten thousand simultaneous connections. In the past such a test would require a bank of ten thousand analog or digital modems. Such an approach is cumbersome, unreliable and costly.
What is needed is a system and method for testing communication systems which support large numbers of simultaneous connections without the need for individual modems.
According to one aspect of the present invention, a system and method of testing a bank of modems is described. A test bed includes a RAS concentrator, wherein the RAS concentrator includes means for spoofing operation of a plurality of modems. The RAS concentrator is connected to a communication server having one or more concentrators or a bank of modems. Software is executed in the test bed to establish a plurality of simultaneous connections between the RAS concentrator and the bank of modems.
According to another aspect of the present invention, a system for testing a communications server which provides a plurality of simultaneous modem connections includes a communications medium, a processor and a RAS concentrator connected to the processor and the communications medium. The RAS concentrator includes a signal processor for managing a plurality of modem connections and a communications interface connected to the signal processor and the communications medium, wherein the signal processor operates under program control to spoof individual modem connections across the communications medium.
According to yet another aspect of the present invention, a system for testing a communications server which provides a plurality of simultaneous modem connections includes a Public Switched Telephone Network, a processor and a RAS concentrator connected to the processor and the Public Switched Telephone Network. The RAS concentrator includes a signal processor for managing a plurality of modem connections and a Public Switched Telephone Network interface connected to the signal processor and the Public Switched Telephone Network, wherein the signal processor operates under program control to spoof individual modem connections across the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) interface.
According to yet another aspect of the present invention, a RAS concentrator includes a processor and a Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) interface connected to the processor. The processor operates under program control to spoof individual modem connections across the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) interface.
According to yet another aspect of the present invention, a RAS concentrator adapter includes a processor, a computer interface and a Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) interface connected to the processor. The processor operates under program control to spoof individual modem connections across the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) interface. The computer interface is capable of communicating with a computer.